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The Single UNIX &reg; Specification, Version 2<br>
Copyright &copy; 1997 The Open Group

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<h4><a name = "tag_001_014_2163">&nbsp;</a>NAME</h4><blockquote>
tabs - set terminal tabs
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_2164">&nbsp;</a>SYNOPSIS</h4><blockquote>
<pre><code>

tabs <b>[</b> -<i>n</i>| -a| -a2| -c| -c2| -c3| -f| -p| -s| -u<b>][</b>+m<b>[</b><i>n</i><b>]]</b>
<b>[</b>-T <i>type</i><b>]</b>

tabs <b>[</b>-T <i>type</i><b>][</b> +<b>[</b><i>n</i><b>]]</b><i> n1</i><b>[</b>,<i>n2</i>,...<b>]</b>
</code>
</pre>
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_2165">&nbsp;</a>DESCRIPTION</h4><blockquote>
The
<i>tabs</i>
utility displays a series of characters
that first clears the hardware terminal tab settings and
then initialises the tab stops at the specified positions
and optionally adjusts the margin.
<p>
The phrase &quot;tab-stop position
<i>N</i>&quot;
is taken to mean that, from the start of a line of
output, tabbing to position
<i>N</i>
will cause the next character output to
be in the
(<i>N</i>+1)th
column position on that line.
The maximum number of tab stops allowed is terminal-dependent.
<p>
It need not be possible to implement
<i>tabs</i>
on certain terminals.
If the terminal type obtained from the
<i>TERM</i>
environment variable or
<b>-T</b>
option represents such a terminal,
an appropriate
diagnostic message will be written to standard error and
<i>tabs</i>
will exit with a status greater than zero.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_2166">&nbsp;</a>OPTIONS</h4><blockquote>
The
<i>tabs</i>
utility supports the <b>XBD</b> specification, <a href="../xbd/utilconv.html#usg"><b>Utility Syntax Guidelines</b>&nbsp;</a> ,
except for various extensions:
the options
<b>-a2</b>,
<b>-c2</b>
and
<b>-c3</b>
are multi-character and
+m<i>n</i>
uses a leading plus sign and an optional option-argument.
<p>
The following options are supported:
<dl compact>

<dt><b>-</b><i>n</i>
<dd>Specify repetitive tab stops separated
by a uniform number of column positions,
<i>n</i>,
where
<i>n</i>
is a single-digit decimal number.
The default usage of
<i>tabs</i>
with no arguments is equivalent to
tabs -8.
When
<b>-0</b>
is used, the tab stops are cleared and no new ones set.

<dt><b>-a</b>
<dd>1,10,16,36,72

Assembler, applicable to some mainframes.

<dt><b>-a2</b>
<dd>1,10,16,40,72

Assembler, applicable to some mainframes.

<dt><b>-c</b>
<dd>1,8,12,16,20,55

COBOL, normal format.

<dt><b>-c2</b>
<dd>1,6,10,14,49

COBOL,
compact format (columns 1-6 omitted).

<dt><b>-c3</b>
<dd>1,6,10,14,18,22,26,30,34,38,42,46,50,54,58,62,67

COBOL
compact format (columns 1-6 omitted), with more tabs than
<b>-c2</b>.

<dt><b>-f</b>
<dd>1,7,11,15,19,23

FORTRAN

<dt><b>-p</b>
<dd>1,5,9,13,17,21,25,29,33,37,41,45,49,53,57,61

PL/1

<dt><b>-s</b>
<dd>1,10,55

SNOBOL

<dt><b>-u</b>
<dd>1,12,20,44

Assembler, applicable to some mainframes.

<dt><b>-T&nbsp;</b><i>type</i>
<dd>
Indicate the type of terminal.
If this option is not
supplied and the
<i>TERM</i>
variable is unset or null,
an unspecified default terminal type will be used.
The setting of
<i>type</i>
will take precedence over the value in
<i>TERM .
</i>
<dt><b>+m[</b><i>n</i><b>]</b><dd>
Reset the margin.
The margin argument can be used for some terminals.
It causes all tabs to be moved over
<i>n</i>
columns by making column
<i>n</i>+1
the left margin.
If
<i>n</i>
is omitted, the default is 10.
The normal (leftmost) margin on most terminals is
obtained by
+m0.
The margin for most terminals is reset only when the
+m
flag is given explicitly.

</dl>
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_2167">&nbsp;</a>OPERANDS</h4><blockquote>
The following operand is supported:
<dl compact>

<dt><i>n1</i><b>[,</b><i>n2</i><b>,</b>...<b>]</b><dd>
A single command-line argument that consists of tab-stop values
separated
using either commas or
blank characters.
The tab-stop values will be positive decimal integers
in strictly ascending order.
If any number (except the first one) is preceded by a plus sign, it is taken
as an increment to be added to the previous value.
For example, the tab lists
1,10,20,30
and
1,10,+10,+10
are considered to be identical.

</dl>
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_2168">&nbsp;</a>STDIN</h4><blockquote>
Not used.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_2169">&nbsp;</a>INPUT FILES</h4><blockquote>
None.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_2170">&nbsp;</a>ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES</h4><blockquote>
The following environment variables affect the execution of
<i>tabs</i>:
<dl compact>

<dt><i>LANG</i><dd>Provide a default value for the internationalisation variables
that are unset or null.
If
<i>LANG</i>
is unset or null, the corresponding value from the
implementation-dependent default locale will be used.
If any of the internationalisation variables contains an invalid setting, the
utility will behave as if none of the variables had been defined.

<dt><i>LC_ALL</i><dd>
If set to a non-empty string value,
override the values of all the other internationalisation variables.

<dt><i>LC_CTYPE</i><dd>
Determine the
locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data as
characters (for example, single- as opposed to multi-byte characters
in arguments).

<dt><i>LC_MESSAGES</i><dd>
Determine the locale that should be used to affect
the format and contents of diagnostic
messages written to standard error.

<dt><i>NLSPATH</i><dd>
Determine the location of message catalogues
for the processing of
<i>LC_MESSAGES .
</i>
<dt><i>TERM</i><dd>Determine the terminal type.
If this variable is
unset or null,
and if the
<b>-T</b>
option is not specified, an unspecified default
terminal type will be used.

</dl>
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_2171">&nbsp;</a>ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS</h4><blockquote>
Default.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_2172">&nbsp;</a>STDOUT</h4><blockquote>
If standard output is a terminal,
the appropriate sequence to clear and set the tab stops
may be written to standard output
in an unspecified format.
If standard output is not a terminal,
undefined results occur.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_2173">&nbsp;</a>STDERR</h4><blockquote>
Used only for diagnostic messages.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_2174">&nbsp;</a>OUTPUT FILES</h4><blockquote>
None.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_2175">&nbsp;</a>EXTENDED DESCRIPTION</h4><blockquote>
None.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_2176">&nbsp;</a>EXIT STATUS</h4><blockquote>
The following exit values are returned:
<dl compact>

<dt>0<dd>Successful completion.

<dt>&gt;0<dd>An error occurred.

</dl>
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_2177">&nbsp;</a>CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS</h4><blockquote>
Default.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_2178">&nbsp;</a>APPLICATION USAGE</h4><blockquote>
This utility makes use of the terminal's hardware tabs and the
<i><a href="stty.html">stty</a></i>
<i>tabs</i>
option.
<p>
This utility is not recommended for application use.
<p>
Some integrated display units might not have
escape sequences to set tab stops, but may be set by
internal system calls.
On these terminals,
<i>tabs</i>
will work if standard output is directed to the terminal;
if output is directed to another file, however,
<i>tabs</i>
will fail.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_2179">&nbsp;</a>EXAMPLES</h4><blockquote>
None.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_2180">&nbsp;</a>FUTURE DIRECTIONS</h4><blockquote>
None.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_2181">&nbsp;</a>SEE ALSO</h4><blockquote>
<i><a href="expand.html">expand</a></i>,
<i><a href="stty.html">stty</a></i>,
<i><a href="unexpand.html">unexpand</a></i>.
</blockquote><hr size=2 noshade>
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UNIX &reg; is a registered Trademark of The Open Group.<br>
Copyright &copy; 1997 The Open Group
<br> [ <a href="../index.html">Main Index</a> | <a href="../xshix.html">XSH</a> | <a href="../xcuix.html">XCU</a> | <a href="../xbdix.html">XBD</a> | <a href="../cursesix.html">XCURSES</a> | <a href="../xnsix.html">XNS</a> ]

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